Video

Charles Ohiaeri, Chief Fulfillment Officer with Zazzle and Dscoop board member, talks about the new Dscoop Academia Program. The program's goal is to bring college students, professors, and printing companies together to develop skills, foster new talent, and provide opportunities for collaboration between industry and academia.

Tim Check, Production Manager, Epson America, talks about direct-to-garment printing, particularly using the brand-new Epson F-2100 Series printer which can print directly on T-shirts, baby onesies, towels, and other kinds of fabric-based items. Garment printing is a growth area for not only traditional screen printers looking to print short-run items, but also for commercial printers who can complement other display graphics services they may be offering.

Erik Schmitt, Director of Sales–Canada, for GMG Color, talks about the software tool set GMG Color has available for sign makers to create an entire workflow specific to the production of signage. He also talks about the importance of color management and the increasing trend toward automation.

Digipix, a photo products company based in Sao-Paulo, Brazil recently installed the HP Indigo 12000 HD Digital Press to support its growing photo products business. Marco Perlman, Digipix founder and CEO, spoke with WhatTheyThink about his business and its recent investment in the HP Indigo 12000 HD Digital Press.

Frank Malozzi, SVP, Worldwide Sales and Marketing for EFI, talks up the hardware and software portfolio on display at last month’s ISA Sign Expo, and the increasing demand from traditional sign and display customers for new applications such as thermoforming.

WhatTheyThink spoke to Keith Wilmot, CEO of DSCOOP at the DSCOOP 18 conference. Under Wilmot's leadership the organization has embarked on transiting DSCOOP from a once per a year conference to a networking platform at dscoop.com

SGIA Chairman Ed Cook, Jr., explains the importance of the organization's upcoming conference on functional printing. FP3 is a new show serving the industrial printing and printed electronics communities. Scheduled for June in Chicago, the event is designed to educate executive-level members of these communities, including operational and business tracks. Google's David Hogue will keynote the event.

Senior Editor Cary Sherburne talks with Zazzle's Chief Fulfillment Officer Charles Ohiaeri about the role of digital textile printing in its ecommerce business that delivers personalized paper and textile products. He shares his views on the analog-to-digital transformation underway in the textiles industry and how digital can make the industry more efficient, profitable, and environmentally friendly, while giving consumers more choice with the ability to personalize or customize their garments and other textile-based products.

At the 70th Annual TAGA Conference, held earlier this month, Frank Romano talks to seven students from the Rochester Institute of Technology who participated in the student chapter journal competition. The journals demonstrate the students’ printing prowess, and use creative design as well as Augmented Reality and QR codes to highlight their academic research.

Chris Bernat, Chief Revenue Officer at Vapor Apparel, likes to break the rules. Fourteen years ago, the company determined that good fabrics for sublimation printing were hard to come by and worked to solve that problem. Today, the company provides high-quality blanks for shirts, accessories, and more, including sublimation-certified white and colored garments that perform on press and in the market, making its clothing in the United States. He also discusses the relative roles of digital and conventional printing for textiles.

It’s been more than a year since Canon Solutions America (CSA) launched the Océ Colorado 1640 UVgel-based wide-format printer. CSA was showing the machine at last week’s ISA Sign Expo, and Senior Marketing Expert John Kaufman provides an update on new features, new inks, and how it has performed in the market.

David Hickey, VP of Advocacy for the International Sign Association, talks about the latest issues related to sign codes, impending OSHA regulations, and the potential impact of steel and aluminum tariffs on businesses in the sign and display industry.

At the ISA Sign Expo 2018, Roland DGA introduced the DGSHAPE LD-80 laser foil decorator. Roland President Andrew Oransky talks about the new device and the opportunities it opens up for print service providers to offer unique, high-value printed specialty products.

Last week, at the ISA Sign Expo 2018, HP announced its new Latex R, the company’s first Latex series to print on rigid media. Joan Pérez Pericot, General Manager for HP’s Large Format Graphics Business, talks to Richard Romano about the new device line, its features and intended applications, and the product rollout schedule.

The ISA Sign Expo 2018 opened in Orlando, Fla., yesterday. Alicia Auerswald, VP of Marketing, Communications, and Membership for the International Sign Association (ISA), talks about some of the new technologies on the show floor, and the increasing need for sign shops to expand into other kinds of print.

Ryonet's Ryan Moor talks with Senior Editor Cary Sherburne about the overall positive impact the analog-to-digital transformation in textiles and apparel stand to have on the environment. He also discusses how his company is helping the people of Haiti by providing workers in his manufacturing operation in the country with a living wage, good working conditions, and more.

In the hunt for new print techniques and technologies for mail, Trish leads us to H&H Graphics in Chicago for a photochromatic ink technology that is designed to work in conjunction with the camera on your smartphone

Andy Louis-Charles, Vice President of Business Development at CustomInk, one of the largest online custom apparel companies in the U.S., talks about the importance of mutually beneficial partnerships with others in the industry. He believes this practice of "co-opetition" raises the level for everyone in the industry. Custom apparel for events is a $7 billion industry—there's lots of room for everyone and an opportunity to grow the pie. With a bigger pie, everyone gets a larger slice, he says.